AUCKLAND FESTIVAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY 2016

It was an action packed week for me, reviewing portfolios, running a two-day workshop, as well as presenting a talk about my book The Middle of Somewhere. There was also a diverse range of exhibitions to check out, with openings to attend and lots of friendly people to meet.

Outside the Silos on the waterfront was an interesting installation ‘Coming Back Home’ by James Voller. Using McCallum’s blocks that incorporates imagery of New Zealand housing into the site. The work combines photographic with site-specific practices to question where and how New Zealanders’ are living.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum hosted an interesting exhibition of historical portrait photographs of unknown provenance from the collection. looking at the diverse physicality of the medium in its earlier periods.

Unknown glass plate negative. The black ‘blobs’ look like dirt or mold on the glass plate but it’s actually snow.

Album for ‘Cartes -de-visite. From the 1860’s small prints formed part of a visitation ritual. A carte-de-visite, or visiting card, was easy to obtain, being printable and inexpensive compared to a cased photograph. A visitor could present thier portrait card which would later be placed into an album. These albums not only documented occasional visitors to a household but also families.

Cartes-de-visite, or visiting cards. Small albumen silver prints mounted on card, often with a studio name below.

Unknown Tintypes. The late 1850’s tintypes are almost identical to ambrotypes in technology, with the difference being that they were exposed on a sheet of black lacquered iron, making them cheaper and easier to handle. Though they were sometimes mounted in cases similar to ambrotypes and Daguerrotypes, a cheaper paper mat enclosure was also used. This kind of mount had one of several oval windows into which the tintype could be placed. Tiny versions of four images on a single mount were known as gems.

‘Gems’ – Tiny tintype prints placed in fours on a single mount.

Unknown Daguerreotype – from 1840’s & 1850’s werer made on silver-coated copper plates. Iodine fumes rendered them light-sensitive and after exposure to mercury vapours altered the exposed areas. Washing revealed very detailed but fragile images that were then mounted and sealed behind glass for protection. There highly reflective surface has a very limited viewing angle. Deurreotypes were usually presented in a portable Morocco (or Union) case of either wood or leather or of thermoplastic.